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Vikings Discussion & Random Thoughts
I’ll get up & update with some links, but it’s late & I’m tired. I just wanted to get something scheduled so you have somewhere to comment in the morning.
It’s my dad’s birthday today, he would be 102 years old. Dude was a veteran of WWII and Korea, a paratrooper and a good man. He taught me my love for baseball and I believe I inherited my ability to fix things from him.
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Great story here…
Montana St up 44-28 with less than 2m left.
I think we can call ballgame on this one.
#nojinx
I have no idea who any of those people are. NHL was my favorite sport until the North Stars left.
Was never my ‘favorite sport’ but I was at least interested and following it until the Stars died.
Montana St currently up on Stephen F. Austin 14-0 early in the 2nd qtr.
Go Great NorthWest!!
24-8 Montana St at the half.
GO CATS!!!
Just need Montana and UC Davis to win tomorrow and 3 of the 4 final teams will be from the Big Sky.
I remember those ‘Big Sky’ days when I was stationed up at Sierra Army Depot between Reno and Susanville.
OK… this is officially impressive…
… and way too much time on your hands.
Don’t forget about the big game tonight. I forget, when do the Bison and Jackrabbits play this weekend?
I’m sick to death of the liberal loons teaching our children… we should be able to sue the schools and teachers for this stuff.
No, no, no. None of that is happening in schools. You are just a crazy right wing nut job blowing things out of proportion.
Pretty sure I’m a white supremist too according Jasmine Crockett.
She said we should deport ‘white supremists’ because they commit more crimes than illegal aliens.
Put aside that they are usually citizens so deporting them is problematic.
I would be fine with deporting ‘white supremists’ who commit crimes, as long as we can deport blacks, hispanics, asians, samoans and any other group of citizens who commit heinous crimes.
Can you imagine this person as a US Senator?
I can’t imagine her as member of the House of Representatives but there she/it is.
Just mailed out the last of the Christmas presents and cards. Done!!!! Decorations and tree are all done too!
Cool. I will be regularly checking the mailbox.
Laughing… always feels good when it’s all done. The wife accidently opened a package from Amazon with one of her gifts in it, so she got an early Christmas.
You should have returned it as punishment.
Laughing… well Bow, she killed her first deer when she was 11 years old. She has a few guns, and let’s just say she can point and shoot.
The Teacher coordinated for ‘kids gifts’ this year, she went thru the Boise Pie Company. She was having issues with the online order so she called the company and talked to a ‘real person’.
They fixed the issue and said if she sent the recipient list they would handle the mailing/billing/messaging themselves. Made it much easier for her so a win-win.
That’s very cool. Great customer service! Love that.
She was ordering 10-11 pie gift cards/gift certificates so they were modivated to be helpful, but it was still very nice of them.
to argue surly’s point below about kirk cousins not playing up to the value of his contracts…
there are maybe like… a dozen or so players who actually do…
if we wanted to start arguing about players who haven’t been playing up to their contract value…let’s start with JUSTIN JEFFERSON….
why aren’t you CONSTANTLY being bothered by Jefferson and his gigantic contract and poor play huh? HUH?? HUHHHHHH?!??!?!@?
Agreed, or Hock even.
Contracts on based on ‘potential’, not guaranteed performance.
I for one said Hock needed to go this past offseason. I was really hoping Loveland would somehow fall to the Vikings.
Yeah, Hock has been overrated and he has been overpaid his entire career. Worse investment IMO. Consistently good, durable QB play worth WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than a TE who sometimes can catch.
Hock needs to send Kirk and nice Christmas gift each year.
Because Justin Jefferson can use a grill.
just because he wears grills doesn’t mean he CAN grill
To be fair, believe the other side of the equation has bearing on this.
Jefferson caught a lot of balls from Cousins, Darnold, even Mullins. This year our QB situation has hardly been top shelf.
But he has also had a ton of drops, like several others.
‘he has also had a ton of drops’
Exactly how much does a ‘drop’ weigh??
Asking for scientific reasons of course.
Haha. Seems he has averaged about 1 drop of a very catchable ball per game. That may not be official stats, but there have been some bad ones – ones he normally makes, but hasn’t this year.
As we found out with Thielen the ‘official’ drop definition does not equate to even a logical fans definition.
Yep, they appear to be very generous on not counting towards the “drop” stat.
“Ton of drops” – really?
If you took every single ball that he “dropped” and added to his catches, where would his figures be at?
I’d guess worst of his career – wonder why?
I can live with that. I never thought Jefferson was worth $35 million per. I would have preferred trading him for an OL.
I honestly don’t think any WR is worth $35 million.
I wonder what trade value Jefferson has right now with his big contract and falling stats. I would be curious to see how in demand he is if Vikes made known he was on the trading block.
Teams might be like, “I’ll give you a second and a fourth and Phillip Rivers. Oh, and you still have to pay half his salary…”
I agree – no WR is worth that much, but nice to have. You can get a replacement that is 90% as good for much cheaper, especially for a player that touches the ball less than 7-8 times per game usually.
At the time, paying him was a bit of a wash because some were theorizing the team wouldn’t have to pay a QB big money until JJ’s contract was up.
Plus, they would have likely screwed up the picks anyway.
But now we have a shiny Jefferson that we don’t really know what to do with. We are getting no production out of him, and it is fine if that isn’t Jefferson’s fault. It can be the QB and KOC, too.
Regardless of who is at fault, it needs fixing, because the team is paying him $35 million to be on the field doing very little.
East fix – get someone to throw him the ball regularly and accurately. He has more than proven he can hold up his end.
Actually, I am annoyed.
I think the team is wasting money by keeping Jefferson and Hock.
And a few others.
If it is going to be another year or two before JJ either excels or fails, it seems silly to pay a WR that is rarely thrown to.
There’s no way Jefferson goes anywhere until 2027. His dead hit is just too high in 2026 unless you were to get like 3 firsts and then some.
Shoot, even in 2027 his dead cap hit is $33 million and you’d only gain about $10.5 million in cap space. They could do a post June 1 trade or cut in 2027 and save $30 million in 2027, but then you’d still have $19.5 million in dead money in 2028.
Trade him in 2026 and you are looking at losing an additional $33 million in cap space if released prior to June 1 and losing $7.5 million in cap space if traded prior to June 1. Jets isn’t going anywhere until 2028 unless he gets so upset that he is willing to rework his contract, significantly.
I just fried a hamburger in the microwave. I did not know I could do that so easily. I’m just going to eat quarter pounders for lunch at work moving forward. I would rather eat that than luncheon meat.
I tried 85 percent lean ground beef, but too much grease was not a huge problem. I will try 80 percent next time.
You don’t get that char, of course, but a burger is a burger and with the right toppings and condiments, it is decent.
If the meat is 85% lean and that has ‘to much grease’ wouldn’t 80% lean have even more grease?? Seems like 90% lean would be more logical.
Correct…85 percent lean did not have a too-much-grease problem, so I’m thinking I will try 80 percent lean and see if that has a too-much-grease problem. I would like a little more grease, actually.
It may also be the cooking process. I wrapped it up in a paper towel several times, so that may have sucked all the juice out of it.
‘wrapped it up in a paper towel’
A microwave safe dish might be more good-er.
Enjoy trying different options, even an ‘un-perfect burger’ is still a good burger.
I think aluminum foil would be the best.
I love burgers too. I use Bacon Jam on them frequently. The wife cooks them up, and then I can reheat them in the microwave any time I want. I just like them with salt and pepper for the most part, but she’ll throw a little garlic salt in there too, sometimes.
I have Bacon Jam that I have not opened.
Do you put it on before or after cooking the burger?
Or do you mix it with the meat prior to cooking?
I put it on like any other condiment, after cooking the burger. It’s really good.
I will have to give it a try. The jar is just wasting away as it is.
When I am making burgers from scratch, in addition to seasoned salt and pepper, I add a little Worcestershire sauce.
Oh yeah, when I make burgers on the grill, that’s one of my favorite tweaks.
Thats how McDonalds cook their burgers.
Nuke it.
A couple of us mentioned this last night. Atlanta was down by 14, they scored a touchdown, and then they went for two. Why not just kick the extra point?
Some dumb ass thing with analytics tells him to go for two in that situation. I take the extra point, and if you get another touchdown, you can decide whether to go for the win or the tie.
why lock yourself into a shit box?
Their coach is not going to win any awards for brain power. Believe he has a career 300 winning percentage as a HC.
We see that time and time again, I just don’t get it.
It is ‘un-logical’ which really bothers me.
At least I got the results I wanted and I got to tease NLNVF after he claimed TB was a ‘much better team’ and would win easily.
#humblebrag
Totally agree. I thought it was stupid. Proved to be right in the end. Take the points. The oldest adage in football.
A.I. says the analytics strongly recommend going for 2.
Great question! Yes, modern NFL analytics generally recommend going for two in that situation. Here’s why:
The Logic Behind It
Analytics Perspective
Bottom LineAnalytics strongly favor going for two after the first touchdown when down 14 in the 4th quarter, because it gives you two shots at tying and one shot at winning outright.
Would you like me to show the math behind the win probabilities for each strategy? Or create a visual chart comparing the two options?
Provide your feedback on BizChat
And if you are nerdy and want the Math…..
Copilot
Analysis
Python
# Define probabilities
p_pat = 0.94 # Extra point success rate
p_two = 0.48 # Two-point conversion success rate
overtime_win = 0.50 # Chance to win in overtime
# Strategy 1: Kick PAT after first TD
# After first TD: down 7 if PAT succeeds, down 8 if PAT fails
# If PAT succeeds: need another TD + PAT to tie, then overtime
# Win probability = PAT1 success * PAT2 success * overtime_win
strategy1_win = p_pat * p_pat * overtime_win
# Strategy 2: Go for 2 after first TD
# Case A: First 2-point succeeds (down 6): next TD wins outright
caseA = p_two * 1.0 # 100% win after second TD
# Case B: First 2-point fails (down 8): need second TD + 2-point to tie, then overtime
caseB = (1 – p_two) * (p_two * overtime_win)
strategy2_win = caseA + caseB
print(“Win Probability Comparison:”)
print(f”Strategy 1 (Kick PAT): {strategy1_win:.4f} or {strategy1_win*100:.2f}%”)
print(f”Strategy 2 (Go for Two): {strategy2_win:.4f} or {strategy2_win*100:.2f}%”)
Show more lines
Here’s the math:
Assumptions
Strategy 1: Kick PAT after first TD
𝑃=(0.94×0.94×0.50)=0.4418≈44.18%P=(0.94×0.94×0.50)=0.4418≈44.18%
Strategy 2: Go for Two after first TD
𝑃𝐴=0.48×1.0=0.48PA=0.48×1.0=0.48
𝑃𝐵=(1−0.48)×(0.48×0.50)=0.1248PB=(1−0.48)×(0.48×0.50)=0.1248
𝑃=0.48+0.1248=0.6048≈60.48%P=0.48+0.1248=0.6048≈60.48%
https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/svg/2705.svg Result:
Analytics clearly favor going for two after the first touchdown.
a 16 percent difference in win probability is pretty strong.
So the analytics were wrong in this case… I would have kicked the extra point twice personally.
That is because you are a science denier! You probably don’t believe in Global warming either.
Laughing… so hard. Nailed it NoDak!
‘If you kick the extra point (PAT), you’ll be down 7, meaning you need another touchdown just to tie and force overtime’
News flash, you need a ‘another touchdown’ even when you go for 1.
Broken logic by math nerds who never played the game IMHO.
Hopefully this bodes well for us…
Babb’s Coffee House in Jamestown. I love this place, I eat here every time I’m in town.
That looks so cool. Love that kind of place.
Good food, good coffee, and nice folks
Well it’s North Dakota, Duh!!! Of course there will be nice folks.
My DIL and grandkids stayed in Jamestown last week on there way home to Washington.
The Fairfield is a really good hotel there in Jamestown, is next to the mall. They have a couple smaller water slides and a nice hot tub.
Babbs is downtown, really good food, and lots of gluten-free options.
She stayed at a hotel right off the interstate. The lady at the front desk was really nice which was helpful as my DIL was really stressed because of the snow storm. It was one of those small world things as the lady at the front desk has a cousin that went on the same missions trip my daughter did this past summer.
Just about everyone is ND is a nice, helpful and decent person from my experience.
Except for my ex-wife of course.
I liked the Depot for breakfast food in Jamestown.
I had to go get my real ID. I’m convinced that it’s some sort of tracking device. They won’t let you fly without one anymore I guess.
Since we fly out to Florida in the morning, I thought I had better go get one.
Where are you flying down to again?
Florida
oh, did you mean which city? Orlando.
I hope that’s where we land. That’s where it’s scheduled to land. Lots of cornfields between here and there, hopefully we don’t land in one of those.
What do you have against cornfields??
Maybe Kristi Noem is in it.
Right, but then I’d be dead
But she could give you a ‘happy ending’.
#badjoke
Laughing. JR lives near Orlando.
We’re going to visit Saint Augustine. It’s the oldest city in the United States, and I’ve always wanted to see it. We might buzz over to Universal for half a day to see the new park, am I kid and I want to spend half a day deep sea fishing too.
Little cool around here – 68 – but will be a little warmer when you get here.
Universal is pretty cool place and so is ST Augustine.
The actual temperature here tomorrow morning is supposed to be -10. It’s going to be almost 80° warmer when we land several hours later.
65 here yesterday. 5 this morning, we got about a foot of snow overnight after raining all afternoon and its supposed to keep snowing until tomorrow morning.
The Christmas lights displayed around St. Augustine are beautiful.
Stop by the Ice Plant Bar and try the Pimento Cheese dip appetizer. It is awesome.
What area are you at?
I’m in the Northwest Panhandle, over by Destin.
My wifes favorite vacation spot, we are headed there again next summer.
Great area. Pretty close, spent a lot of time in Pensacola. Love the beaches in the area.
One of my friends went to Destin and said it was a nice time. I think I would go there if I go to Florida again.
Military ID is a ‘Real ID’ so I never needed one.
But Idaho DLs are also ‘Real IDs’ so I got my 2nd one once I moved here.
I thought that the ID I had was real. It worked everywhere I used it.
Is it a racist ID? Wait, I think all ID’s are racist so that means TSA especially, by requiring an even specialer ID is more racist than poll workers.
Rec for the proper use of ‘specialer’.
REAL ID cards (and Enhanced Driver’s Licenses/EDLs) can contain RFID chips, but they don’t have GPS trackers; the passive RFID chip stores limited info (like your ID number) for border crossings, activated by a scanner from a short distance, allowing officials to quickly look up your full record in a secure database, not track you continuously. The primary purpose is secure identification, especially for crossing borders, not constant personal surveillance, though privacy concerns about data access remain
i have friends who refuse to get the real id or the enhanced since they don’t want to be tracked or give all the info…..AS IF THEY AREN”T BEING TRACKED WITH EVERYTHIN ELSE, smart watches, phones, email etc etc….
come on mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Phones are the worst. You can’t escape being tracked.
Cops use them to solve billions of crimes. The College Kids Murders in here in Idaho and most recently the Jan 6th pipe bomber. Cell phone data was critical in both of those cases but lots and lots of others.
‘they don’t have GPS trackers’
They don’t need it, they have smart phones for that.
haha exactly THIS
That’s why I keep the GPS turned off on my phone.
@I’m sure you can trust it’s not tracking you@
Cell phone pings still track where you are, just maybe not quite as precisely. Have to go full airplane mode or turn it off to shut that ability to track down.
Sounds like something a government tracker would say…
That’s what they tell us
Passport still works if you do not have the real ID.
But yes, they are tracking you.
Always.
I really need to get my passport anyway
I might want to go to Wisconsin someday
Sometimes when I am logging into my email, I will get distracted and click on a headline. I should know better. Journalism 101: How to write an article without saying anything at all. I clicked on an article about the Michigan coach fiasco and even though the byline said there was new information, there was no real information at all. It was like a politician or KOC wrote the article.
Oooops…
https://twitter.com/Gradjanin5/status/1999369742138708252?s=20
‘There is no damage to the orange care after it crashed’
The Orange Car was obviously made of rubber.
Now AI is great. A few years ago Fake News was bad.
Happy Heavenly Bday to Sr. GF. Where there are good dads there are good kids – you seldom see rotten kids from good dads.
He was a good man. I didn’t get to know him very well, he got sick with cancer when I was three, died when I was 10. I get my love of baseball and fishing from him.
I wrestled in my first tournament when I was six, I took second place. I was talking to my dad afterwards and I told him I hope I do better in the next one. He looks me and he said “well how goddamn much better can you do?” LOL
Kirk Cousins may have just earned himself more options in 2026
He looked pretty good last night.
No doubt about it.
Kirk shines when money is on the line.
Comeback WINZ!!!
Fast mind, great arm. Great NFL QB. Folks who don’t “get” Cousins just don’t know what NFL caliber QB play is. Period.
I tend to agree with this, I do think his play has slipped a bit though…that tends to happen. Aaron Rodgers isn’t as good as he once was either. I am guessing Phillip Rivers is going to be pretty bad.
I personally don’t think his play has slipped. He got hurt in week 10 last year. The Saints wrecked his throwing arm. Took over 9 months to recover. Then this season Raheem Morris decides Penix is the starter and the offense is designed and schemed around his limited abilities. He sucks, but the Falcons stick with him, insisting he has to develop as the QBOTF. Cousins has good games as a starter against the Saints and the Jets, gets wrecked in the second half against the SeaHawks, then puts up a great performance last night. He looks as good as ever IMO. Knocking off the rust, and reminding folks just how good he is.
Yep. Kirk showed up and really played well.
I still think he has never played on level with his contracts on a consistent basis. But he was on point last night and providing a clinic. Kirk was rarely missing his target unless his arm was hit.
If only he played that well vs the Giants in the playoff game a few years back. Oh well, he got Daniel Jones paid.
Which got him cut and in a round about way got the Vikings an extra draft pick, so Kirk actually helped the Vikings by playing poorly against the Giants.
See above… he played exceptionally well in the Giants game. Wrong here Bow.
UMMMM he did play very well against the Giants in the playoff game. He completed over 79% of his passes for 273 yards and 2 TD’s with no interceptions. Had a 112 passer rating. He simply had no options on the last play of the game, despite how many people want to blame him for the loss.
Agree.
‘he got Daniel Jones paid’
I thought that was Donna Shells defense.
Warms the cockles of my heart…
What a story – both heart warming and heart breaking.
We have some great people in this country.
But it also pisses me off as we have a bunch of free loaders who live off government handouts and never even try. Look at this man at 88.
Yep. Hundreds of Billions of tax payer dollars going out the window because the Dems are supporting tens of millions of illegal aliens, hoping to turn them into a voting bloc with amnesty and free citizenship. Total power grab by the left, and we’re paying for it. Meanwhile a good guy like this is working, and just trying to survive.
Also a very good reminder about corporations and pensions.
you think you have some security, and some dick wants a third mansion somewhere so the benefits that were supposed to be guaranteed get cut.
Amen brother. Everyone thought I was crazy when I quit in my corporate gig, best thing I ever did.
I am a full time employee again after being an independent contractor for 25 of the last 30 years. But I work for a private corporation, so there are no shareholders to appease.
I wanted benefits since healthcare had become silly-expensive. Paid time off is also very nice. Working for myself, I never took more than 2 weeks per year off. I suddenly have 6. I feel like I part timer. I also got very tired of applying for new contracts every few years. I really do not like job interviews.
I was fortunate, the business is panning out really well and I love doing it I have far more time off now and I’m much more available for my son.
And General Motors did not respond to requests for comment/info on cancelling retirements/health insurance last I heard.
Due to a multitude of distractions, I forgot to get my pick in before last night’s game.
It actually turned out in my favor, though. I definitely would have taken the Bucs with a fair chunk of confidence points.
So, yeah…I won by not playing!
Overall turned out for my benefit. I only had them for 8 confidence points.
Looks like you had the least amount of points on them of those who got their picks in. Although, NoDak didn’t get his pick in either. This could be to his benefit, as well, if he felt good about them.
Bucs have really come back to earth, though. They are .500 all of a sudden.
Baker was a front runner for MVP at one point
He was, but he got pretty banged up in a couple games. Like Wentz, busted up his left shoulder. Has some other issues too. Tough guy, and very competitive. Gutting some games out. Performance is gonna dip when you’re in that situation.
Sounds like something a loser would say…….
Yeah, 13 points on the bucs for me.
@thanks Kirko@
Shit, me too. I had the picks open twice earlier this week and then a fire came up and I got distracted. I did not get them in prior to last night’s game.
Manly is lucky…I was going to put 14 on Kirko!
You can’t stop Kirk Cousins. You can only hope to contain Kirk Cousins.
Laughing. It was a great game to watch. Came down to the last drive. 3rd and 28, then 4th and 14. Then of course the kicker had to come through. 19 penalties? Man, that was one weird night for both teams.
GF, a salute to your father. Sounds like he was a great man.
I have his book from airborne school, I’ll have to post a picture of it on here when I get home
Good morning, SKOL!
FTP!
GM!
TGIFF!
FTP!
Kirko had a very good game last night. Prime time even. I thought for sure the strip sack fumble was going to end the game, but he landed on the ball.
Kirko plays his best, when it matters most. Earning money.
It’s time to cash in on his next guaranteed contract.
Last night was an audition.
So you admit he’s really good at least sometimes? 😉
That win last night is what I would call a QB win. Even though we argue about wins being a QB stat.
No way that the falcons overcome all the miscues and penalties without two things happening. Kirk playing very well, and Tampa having a stupid coach.
Kirko was still close to falling short. That strip sack fumble, he was lucky to recover.
3rd and 28, and two great passes later it is a first down. Pretty cool.
Still not worth the money, but he will get paid one more time….
So this of course was a team win. The defense came up with the interception that allowed the offense to score. Why they went for two on the TD that made it 28-20 was a mystery to me, and in a word, stupid. The defense does its job, the offense scores again, and of course can’t convert the two point try again. Down 26-28, as time is winding down in the game, the defense forces a punt, giving the offense one last gasp to kick a field goal, which they do. Receivers make critical catches, and the kicker makes the 43 yarder to seal the deal.
Cousins played very well, but as usual, he alone did not win that game. At all.
How many QBs make those throws at the end of the game?
That is where the QB gets the win in my head. Less than 1/2 of the starting QBs could do what he did last night.
Kirks still sucks though
Laughing. The end of the game, when you have to have it, takes a special kind of mental and emotional toughness and nerve. You either have that ability or you don’t. Cousins has been a guy who can lead a game winning drive since he became a starter in 2015. He has scored with less than two minutes left in the game to take the lead many times though, only to watch his defense choke the game away. That’s why it’s always a team game, and teams win games.
Go look at the “fumble” by Bijan Robinson. The Likely catch for the Ravens was not a catch but that was? Lol. That, and the nearly 20 penalties, the refs tried their best to screw them, and Kirk still won.
Cousins played well. Made some very good passes. It is amazing to me that ATL overcame all of those penalties and mistakes to win the game.
I wouldn’t have guessed nearly impossible to win.
They had 18 penalties when I went to bed. I didn’t know the Falcons won until just now.
FTP Auto Rec.